Cruising in September vs. January

[Jfsag123]

We are considering our very first cruise on the Treasure next year, but we are looking at September which, of course, brings up concerns related to it being peak hurricane season. I'm wondering how many folks who have sailed around that time have had their cruises impacted? I know it's impossible to predict, but trying to collect whatever data I can. I'm not really worried about port itineraries being changed, as we can roll with that, and I know if the cruise ends up being cancelled Disney will make it right and we can rebook, so not super worried about that either. My big concern is needing additional days before or after the cruise, as this will be tough with work/school schedules. How often does this actually happen for folks?

The other option we're considering is January, but I'm worried about a different kind of weather there. We're coming from Texas, so winter storms impacting travel isn't a huge concern (though always at least a small chance), but more thinking about what weather might be like for the actual cruise. Is the water typically cold? I mentioned we're from the south and we travel to WDW in July every year, so we're good with heat, but I hate the cold.

Appreciate any info anyone is able to share! I am well-versed in the world of the parks, but cruising is all new to me.

 

[Girl of the South]

I did a Merrytime cruise the first week in December. Weather was great. Sunshine all the way. 70’s mostly. No storms or cancelled ports. Of course it’s difficult to predict what the weather will be like, months in advance. I have gotten to the stage where I prefer traveling in Oct - Feb because of fewer crowds. Just my 2 cents!

 

[auntlynne]

I find Jan and Feb water temps to be a little cooler than I like, when the sea is losing the summer heat and hasn’t started the Spring warmup. (I am from hot and humid AL). But I find Sep air temps to be hot and humid. And the water is near peak heat - but it is still refreshing compared to the air.

I did a Jan cruise from Mobile to Cozumel, with choppy water at the sole port. My boat-involved excursion was cancelled but I found a replacement on land. The water was still too rough for my comfort.

I find Pacific Ocean temps in Hawaii to be too cold, pretty much year-round. But I will go in Serenity Bay on Castaway Cay. And Trunk Bay on St John (an excursion from St Thomas on an Eastern itinerary ) is practically perfect temp any day.

I have taken 5 cruises in the Bahamas or Eastern or Western Caribbean in Sep or early October. (between 2007 and 2023). Very fortunate to have been in non- hurricane days (not even stormy seas - or not enough to remember. And I have some storm memories of cruising).

(While your airport may not have winter issues, don’t forget that your plane may not be at the gate if its last flight was somewhere snowy.)

Bottom line, I would rather be warm than cool when water activity is involved. If not getting off the boat - then I would pick cool.

 

[imbelle]

My sister lived in the Bahamas for several years and she considered January weather too cold to get in the water.

 

[Cfabar1]

We love September cruises.... great prices, not too crowded...

the hurricane thing is overrated as a concern in my view... DCL is not going to have you sail into a hurricane and they have days to figure out where it is and how to work around it...

In the event your cruise is impacted by the storm it's possible they cancel a port - who cares... ports aren't the point of the ship and they might just switch to another port, maybe your return is delayed a day and you get a free extra night of a cruise, or maybe they cancel your trip entirely, and usually that gives you a refund and some voucher or discount towards your next cruise.

We are actually pretty disappointed it appears September 2025 will have no Halloween on the High Seas Cruises, but what can you do.

 

[loislane]

We've cruised three times - once in August, once in September and just this February.

August cruise - no storms. Weather was hot and humid. Water was calm and warm enough for me to enjoy.

September cruise - sandwiched in between two storms with cruises before and I think after canceled, but our cruise went off just fine. Weather was hot and humid. Water was calm and warm enough for me to enjoy.

February cruise - temps in the 60s the day we sailed. Weather improved as we got into the Caribbean and was pleasantly in the 80s. Water temps were in the low 70s everywhere which meant I didn't do more than wade up to my shins at one beach for a little while. Water was rougher than we'd experienced on our summertime cruises. The barf bags came out one night. It was on Norwegian and our day on their island (Great Stirrup Cay) got cut short due to yet another cold front rolling in and making the water too choppy for safe tendering. They started letting people over around 8 a.m. I think and by probably 9:30, they stopped letting people over. By 11, they were telling those of us who had made it over to head back.

 

[cvjw]

Sailed on the fantasy multiple times in September and January. We like both times. We have never been impacted by a hurricane in September. On our cruise this January, the seas were rough. Roughest we have ever had. Lots of people were sick. We find the water temps in the Caribbean to be fine in January, but too cold for us at castaway.

We would sail at either time - we enjoy both!

 

[DVC Jackie]

We booked an Eastern Caribbean cruise in September which became a Western Caribbean cruise 2 days before we sailed because of a hurricane… still a Disney cruise… still fantastic!

 

[houseofduck]

Our first cruise was a January one. The weather was so bad (cold and windy while the ship was moving) that we didn’t cruise again for almost eight years! We had avoided January because of our first experience until this year. We booked January because of school schedules. Our weather forecast wasn’t looking great, but we were surprised by excellent weather.

So, in our experience, January could be terrible, but it could be great also. If I had the choice, I would avoid it! We prefer November or May.

 

[BStieers]

Sailed in August and October out of Canaveral - 0 weather impact. Sorry I don't have a Sept sailing experience to relay

 

[sponica]

I've done late September and late February. We had no issues on our September cruise, but in a lot of the years that followed, it wasn't the case. Late February the weather was nice, but you could tell who the northerners were...they were the only ones in the water.

 

[Jfsag123]

Y'all are full of such good info and have me leaning toward September. I definitely don't want to have our very first cruise experience possibly be too cold to even get in the water! And I know there is no way to know if we'll be impacted by a hurricane at the time of our sailing, but it sounds like the impacts typically aren't too bad even for folks who are. We will definitely purchase travel insurance regardless!

 

[sponica]

Y'all are full of such good info and have me leaning toward September. I definitely don't want to have our very first cruise experience possibly be too cold to even get in the water! And I know there is no way to know if we'll be impacted by a hurricane at the time of our sailing, but it sounds like the impacts typically aren't too bad even for folks who are. We will definitely purchase travel insurance regardless!

My concern with September is more "can I get to the port?" but that's my same worry for February as it's likely we'll have some winter weather that we need to schedule around, or be able to schedule around...

 

[Mommb]

The chances of the weather being too cool for your comfort in January are greater than the chances of your cruise being extended in September.

My family has sailed out of Port Canaveral in January and February 6 times. The weather in Florida was cold enough to need a sweatshirt several times. It did warm up as we moved south, but the weather at Castaway Cay was too cold to comfortably swim at least twice.

There is a decent chance of a September cruise being affected by a storm, but that is almost always losing or changing a port, and less often involves cruises being cancelled. If you are OK with those situations, you should be fine.

Cruises are very unlikely to depart more than a few hours early, and will arrive back a day late (requiring you to stay an extra day) only if the arrival port itself is closed due to a storm or if the storm is right near the port so that the ship can't get back. This is rare -- it has happened, but in most cases when the port closed, cruises into that port were canceled before they could depart. It is possible that if a storm is coming, the ship will arrive back early, but you would still have a cruise. It is also possible that the ship would arrive back a few hours late after avoiding a storm, so it would be a good idea to schedule your return flight late in the day if possible.

 

[Mango7100]

We have had one sailing in September (non DCL) that was a Western Caribbean that was changed to Eastern the day before due to weather. We were fine with it. However, if you are super tight on vacation days or in a situation where 1-2 days delay (either on the ship that can’t dock or delayed traveling home after docking) is an absolute no-go then I would caution about September. The ship can usually avoid weather and change ports but there’s not much they can do if they can’t arrive back to disembark as planned. I believe there was a Wish cruise that turned from a 4 to a 6 day due to hurricanes. For some that would be great. But for some who don’t have the spare vacation or need to get home for some other reason, it’s not so great..

 

[lklgoodman]

We've done 4 cruises in Jan and 1 in early Feb. We had great weather for all 5 cruises. 3 cruises were Western Caribbean and 2 were Eastern Caribbean. The air temps were usually low/mid 80s and water temps were warm. The water was cooler at CC, but once you get in you quicly get use to it. Haven't sailed in Sept. We live in Ohio, so being able to escape the freezing weather in Jan is the main reason we like sailing in the winter. We've done 2 cruises in March and had bad weather during both, bad weather can happen anytime.

 

[RedHead0186]

We've cruised once in September, and have a September cruise scheduled for this year and will be booking the Treasure for September 2025 (maybe we'll see you on the Sep 20 sailing?!)

The vast majority of cruises in September sail without any issues. Some may have slightly rougher seas if there's a storm nearby. Sometimes, a port will be swapped (if the storm is in the way of a port, or if a port was recently affected by a hurricane/storm and is in no shape to welcome tourists). Less common is switching of a full itinerary-like from an Eastern to a Western Caribbean. Much rarer is cancellation of a full sailing, and that really only occurs if the ship can't get out of port as scheduled. Once sailing, DCL can steer around storms and will definitely keep you safe.

If you're really, really set on a particular itinerary, then I wouldn't recommend sailing in September, as there is a chance you could miss a port or have your itinerary swapped. But again, that's pretty rare. If you're pretty flexible, then take advantage of the lower prices in September and sail away!

The one sailing we did in September 2022 was on the Fantasy and we sailed between Fiona and Ian. We did not have any ports disrupted but did have some rougher seas when sailing 'behind' the storms. Port Canaveral was closed due to Ian and we didn't know until the late the night before we were supposed to disembark if we would be able to dock on time (had to wait for the port to reopen). The Wish sailing that was supposed to dock the day before us couldn't, and got two extra days on their cruise (the following Wish sailing was cancelled). Even so, as you can see we've decided to sail in September two more times, so it didn't deter us!

 

[Jfsag123]

The chances of the weather being too cool for your comfort in January are greater than the chances of your cruise being extended in September.

My family has sailed out of Port Canaveral in January and February 6 times. The weather in Florida was cold enough to need a sweatshirt several times. It did warm up as we moved south, but the weather at Castaway Cay was too cold to comfortably swim at least twice.

There is a decent chance of a September cruise being affected by a storm, but that is almost always losing or changing a port, and less often involves cruises being cancelled. If you are OK with those situations, you should be fine.

Cruises are very unlikely to depart more than a few hours early, and will arrive back a day late (requiring you to stay an extra day) only if the arrival port itself is closed due to a storm or if the storm is right near the port so that the ship can't get back. This is rare -- it has happened, but in most cases when the port closed, cruises into that port were canceled before they could depart. It is possible that if a storm is coming, the ship will arrive back early, but you would still have a cruise. It is also possible that the ship would arrive back a few hours late after avoiding a storm, so it would be a good idea to schedule your return flight late in the day if possible.

The bolded above is exactly the mental exercise I've been trying to do, so I appreciate you laying it out like that. I completely get that it could go either way with either of those months, but September is seeming like less of a potential issue than the possible cold in January, I cannot overstate how much I hate the cold. I don't mind having to wear a sweatshirt while in Florida, but chilly water would be a dealbreaker, no beach time for me! And it seems like the odds of that are higher than the odds of having to add days to a cruise in September.

We've cruised once in September, and have a September cruise scheduled for this year and will be booking the Treasure for September 2025 (maybe we'll see you on the Sep 20 sailing?!)

The vast majority of cruises in September sail without any issues. Some may have slightly rougher seas if there's a storm nearby. Sometimes, a port will be swapped (if the storm is in the way of a port, or if a port was recently affected by a hurricane/storm and is in no shape to welcome tourists). Less common is switching of a full itinerary-like from an Eastern to a Western Caribbean. Much rarer is cancellation of a full sailing, and that really only occurs if the ship can't get out of port as scheduled. Once sailing, DCL can steer around storms and will definitely keep you safe.

If you're really, really set on a particular itinerary, then I wouldn't recommend sailing in September, as there is a chance you could miss a port or have your itinerary swapped. But again, that's pretty rare. If you're pretty flexible, then take advantage of the lower prices in September and sail away!

The one sailing we did in September 2022 was on the Fantasy and we sailed between Fiona and Ian. We did not have any ports disrupted but did have some rougher seas when sailing 'behind' the storms. Port Canaveral was closed due to Ian and we didn't know until the late the night before we were supposed to disembark if we would be able to dock on time (had to wait for the port to reopen). The Wish sailing that was supposed to dock the day before us couldn't, and got two extra days on their cruise (the following Wish sailing was cancelled). Even so, as you can see we've decided to sail in September two more times, so it didn't deter us!

We're looking at the Labor Day week sailing (so technically starts in August), but still very close to yours! If we end up going, we will be sad at home when you're ramping up to leave lol. And that 2022 time is the time I've been reading about that has worried me the most, so it's nice to hear firsthand from folks who sailed at that time.

 

[mab2012]

I live in Ottawa, Canada. We have real winter here. (Well, not so much this past winter, but usually.) I spend a lot of time outdoors in the winter and I am quite used to cold weather, but I am very much a fair-weather swimmer. When we cruise in the Caribbean, it's typically mid-March, and I usually choose not to swim in the Bahamas at that time of year. The water is too cold and the air temperature not warm enough for me to want to swim.

If I was cruising out of Florida in January, I wouldn't expect to want to be in the water (including on-board pools) until we were well south of the Bahamas.

I think September is your better bet. The likelihood of a flight disruption in January due to a winter storm somewhere else in the country that has a knock-on effect on Florida/Texas flights is probably at least as high as your specific cruise being delayed by a hurricane, anyway.

 

[auntlynne]

…

So, in our experience, January could be terrible, but it could be great also. If I had the choice, I would avoid it! We prefer November or May.

Me, too! Nice weather and smaller crowds. Maybe pre-school children with their adult posse. Some homeschoolers. (Of course, not all weeks.)

And the two weeks after US Thanksgiving.